San Jacinto Plaza construction enters phase 2

City officials held a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday to kick off the second portion of construction of the San Jacinto Plaza.

"For decades, the San Jacinto Plaza has been the physical and emotional heart of Downtown El Paso," City Rep. Cortney Niland, District 8, said. "As our community has done on so many occasions lately, we are again choosing to reinvest and reinvigorate important places that make El Paso so great."

REPORTER

Aaron Martinez

Phase two of the 18-month project, which originally started in June, is the renovation of the plaza, officials said. The first portion of the project included expanding the park by 10 feet on all sides, adding water and gutter drains, and installing sidewalks and road speed bumps.

Part one was completed in November. Before phase two began, approval was needed from the city council, officials said in December.

"For the past several months, contractors have been working on curbs and gutters to extend the footprint of the plaza by 10 feet on all sides," said Tracy Novak, director of the El Paso's Parks and Recreation Department. "Which as you can imagine is difficult when you have a site surrounded on all sides by buildings and public streets. Now we will start working on the reconstruction of the plaza."

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The second phase will include adding table tennis and chess courtyards, a splash area for kids, a small cafe, new sidewalks, benches, landscaping, irrigation systems and several shade structures for people to sit and to protect the statues and monuments from the sun.

The major parts of the renovation are expected to be completed by February 2015, said Martin Bartlett, spokesman for the city of El Paso's Engineering and Construction Management Department.

The total cost of the renovations will come out to about $5.3 million.

The money allocated to renovate the plaza is from a quality of life bond that was approved by El Pasoans in November 2012. Funding also is from the Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone fund, which are special zones created by City Council to attract new investment in certain areas.

As part of the groundbreaking ceremony, officials invited three couples that had a special tie to the plaza. All three proposed at the plaza.

"When I was planning to propose to my girlfriend, I wanted to do something special and somewhere special with a lot of history," Isaac Medina said. "So I created a scavenger hunt that ended here at San Jacinto Plaza. When she reached the plaza, I was here and proposed to her."

As construction continues, Medina said he is excited to one day bring his child to the park.

"This plaza means a lot to the city of El Paso and now especially to my wife and I," Medina said. "I can wait until the renovations are done. This is a beautiful piece of El Paso history and hopeful one day in the future I'll bring our kids here. San Jacinto Plaza is going to be a great place in downtown and it is very exciting."

San Jacinto Plaza was built in the 1880s. It is home to Los Lagartos sculpture by world-renowned artist Luis Jimenez.

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